Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

Every Fall, in most of the 29,014 congregations of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints around the world, a special church service is done by our children’s organization, The Primary. During this hour long Primary Children’s Service, nearly everything spoken or sung comes out of the mouth of children between the ages of 3 and 11. To help my kids prepare, I would periodically pull out their lines and help them memorize them. My youngest son loved to say the line he was supposed to: “I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world. It shows me that Jesus loves me and all of you.” ……plus a little something extra like: “I can be like Jesus by not slapping, kicking, hitting, spitting or pushing.” I would mention to him how good the added material was, but that it wasn’t part of his assignment…… to which he would respond, “I know, I just wanted to add some more.” Needless to say, I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go down at “show time.”

Saturday morning (the day before the service) we had most (but not all) of the children there to run through a VERY rough version of the final product. Sunday morning the miracle (that I have personally witnessed over and over for the past 20 years) happened. Angels attended and everything just came together. The little ones still struggled a bit to stay in their chairs. Some of them needed a little prompting for their part once at the podium….and one funny kid actually ran full speed from his seat to the microphone when it was his turn. (Ha!) Even still, the “Fruit of the spirit…..love, joy, peace…goodness, faith…” (as described in Galatians Chapter 5) was undeniably felt by those in attendance. That power of the spirit of The Lord was present as I listened to my sons, daughter, and a host of my friend’s children testify of Jesus’ love for us through words (some improvised) and songs such as: “Beautiful Savior! Lord of the nations! Son of God and Son of Man! Thee will I honor, praise, and give glory, give praise and glory evermore!” and “Jesus is my shepherd. I’m His precious lamb. Tenderly He guides me with His gentle hand. Calm are waters where He leads. Green are pastures where He feeds me. Jesus is my shepherd. He loves me.” – (Jesus Is My Shepherd words and music By: Tammy Robinson).

It seems relatively easy to doubt God’s infinite, unconditional love for us while navigating our day to day lives in this world. (No WONDER He wants us to go to church regularly!)

However, Sunday morning, for all of us sitting on those pews, listening to those wiggly, pure little angels—-it was absolutely impossible to doubt.